Lutyen’s Cathedral That Never Was

Chris Moseley, the head of ship and historic models conservation, is shown relaxing after what must have been quite a nerve racking day. Chris and his colleagues have been conserving the model of Lutyen’s unbuilt design for Liverpool’s Catholic Cathedral for more than a decade. Today the finished pieces of the model were assembled for the first time, to make sure that everything fitted together. Luckily they did!

There isn’t enough room to fully assemble the huge model in the sculpture conservation studio, so it had to be put it together in the nearby paintings conservation studio. The model is being photographed there this week, then it will be taken apart again and transported to the Walker Art Gallery, ready to go on display in the exhibition The cathedral that never was in January 2007.